Embroidered color and fragrance

Chapter 212 Struggle
"Chengdu mansion doesn't need to worry, Xiao Shan is originally from Chengdu mansion. Su Shiyuan led his troops to Guangdong and Fujian. If the prediction is correct, he will turn back to the west, pass through Guangxi, Guizhou and Huguang, and join Shen Zhan in Shaanxi." Mr. Ge In the study with Mr. Fang, both of them were frowning.

"In this way, only Shanxi, Shandong, and Yanjing are left on the Holy Majesty's side?" Mrs. Fang felt cold, "It's only been a few months?"

Mr. Ge walked around the room with his hands behind his back, and said again: "Now that Zhou Chao is leading the army to intercept in Henan, it's fine if he can win, but if he can't, I'm afraid it will be bad."

"This..." Mrs. Fang suddenly felt that he had nothing to say. He sat down and drank tea. After a while, he said, "Aunt Su's identity... I heard that she killed many people in Fengyang, and she killed many people in Xuzhou. But she is as gentle as a spring breeze, and it is rumored that she is unpredictable, and she doesn't know what method to use to coerce Shen Zhan to follow her to rebel."

"What kind of temperament can't be figured out, others can't understand, don't you understand?" Master Ge said: "Because Fengyang is the ancestral home of the sage, she is arrogant and disobedient, so she kills chickens to scare the people. It’s from the Later Song Dynasty, so she just needs to provide comfort and appease people’s hearts. This method is difficult for ordinary men to do.”

"What your lord said is that even when I first heard it, I was only distracted by the rumor that she was murderous. Afterwards, thinking about her way of handling it, it's really wonderful." Fang Darren said humanely.

Master Ge nodded, thinking of Zhu Xun and Su Wanru, "...Did Aunt Su write you a letter?"

"No." Master Fang shook his head. He was actually very afraid of Su Wanru's letter to him. Their friendship, if Su Wanru asked him to do something, or surrender, they really had no choice. "I sent you a letter?"

"No." Master Ge breathed a sigh of relief, and said with a smile: "You and I are really... If I knew today, why bother."

Master Fang also laughed helplessly.

"Master." Mrs. Ge knocked on the door, then opened the door and came in. Seeing Lord Fang was also there, Lord Ge asked: "You came back from the palace, what did the Empress say to you?"

Mrs. Ge sat down angrily, and said angrily: "Your Majesty not only invited me, but also invited several wives, and Mrs. Cui is also here." She paused, and said, "Say that the children are not young anymore. It's good to get married."

As soon as the words came out, the three of them fell silent, Madam Ge said angrily: "Master, you should think of a way. The Holy Majesty is forcing us like this, isn't it... isn't it making us unable to live?"

Ge Yujie and Zhu Xun had a marriage contract, but now Zhu Xun has turned his back on it. Even if they were willing to marry, the court would not agree to it.

Only divorce.

But it would be too bitter for Ge Yujie to retire the engagement. She and Zhu Xun were in love with each other, and they had already said that he would not marry unless he was forced to do so.

"I can only retire." Mr. Ge said: "Just... let's make your natal nephew."

Mr. Fang was dumbfounded, the two girls in his family were not engaged yet, "My lord, I... I'll go back first." Then, he grabbed his official hat and hurried out. Mr. Ge sent him a few steps, saying, "The weather is bad, the road Slow down."

Mr. Fang answered absently, and got into the sedan chair.

Mr. Ge and his wife stared at each other for a while, and Mrs. Ge said after a while, "That's the only way to go." Their cousins ​​were at odds with each other since they were young, and they would fight as soon as they met. Later, they really stopped seeing each other when they got older, and met each other during the Chinese New Year. None of them spoke.

If they get married, they will kill two people.

But there was no one more suitable, Mrs. Ge said: "Go and tell Yujie, if I speak, she will make a fuss."

"That's good." Master Ge said, went back to the bedroom and changed his official robe, and asked someone to invite Ge Yujie. Ge Yujie had lost weight in the past few months, saluted slightly, and said, "Father, Tell me what you have to say, I can hear you."

"You child." Before Madam Ge could say a word, her eyes turned red, she turned her head away, and wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief.

Master Ge coughed, and stopped beating around the bush, "I discussed with your mother, and I plan to let you and your second cousin agree on the marriage, and the marriage will not be done until the end of the year."

"Second cousin?" Ge Yujie suddenly raised her head to look at Mr. Ge, tears streaming down her eyes, and after a while she laughed, and said, "That's right, it's better for me to marry him than to marry someone casually." Amao and Agouqiang, thank you parents for worrying about me."

Ge Yujie lowered his brows, and twisted the handkerchief in his hand. Of course Master Ge is reluctant, but it is one thing to be reluctant, and another thing to follow her.

"Since that's the case, your mother will go talk with your aunt these two days." Mr. Ge said: "You take good care of your body. If you want to eat and buy whatever you want, just let people do it and let them buy it. Just don't wrong yourself."

Ge Yujie nodded and said, "Since there is nothing else, I'll go back."

She turned around and went out the door without looking back. She ran all the way back and closed the door with a bang. The little girl couldn't catch up and could only follow outside knocking on the door and shouting.

Ge Yujie was very irritable, and said angrily, "Go away, I'll wait by myself." She said, feeling uneasy, gnashing her teeth, smashing the teacups and teapots on the table and the jade enamel on the Duobao Pavilion all over the place.

She was trembling with hatred, as if someone had stuffed a ball of cotton in her chest, but there was no object.

Does she want to hate Zhu Xun?But Zhu Xun has no choice, does she hate Zhao Zhiang, no matter how bad Zhao Zhiang is, he never interfered in her marriage... She can only hate herself, hated being born here, hated meeting Zhu Xun, hated that she was unrestrained and fell in love with him .

Now in this field, she is neither advancing nor retreating.

She is not alone, she also has the Ge family, brothers and sisters, nephews and nieces... How can she be selfish and only think about herself.

"A monk can't escape a temple if he can escape." Ge Yujie suddenly thought of this sentence, and angrily squatted on the ground, grabbed the broken porcelain and smashed it, "If you can't marry, you won't marry!"

After smashing and smashing, she found that her fingers were covered with blood from the broken porcelain. She stared blankly, put the porcelain on her wrist, and swiped hard...

Blood gushed out, Ge Yujie stopped crying, and watched with a blank expression.

Zhao Zhiang was drinking medicine, when he heard the words, he looked up at the queen, "Ge's girl committed suicide? Died?"

"I didn't die, I was saved by the girl next to me." The queen sat down opposite him, poured hot tea and handed him to rinse his mouth, "Your Majesty, you should take a look at Ge Huaichuan, after all, he has nothing to do with those people generally."

Ge Yujie learned from Xian Zhennv, and has a very good relationship with Su Wanru, and most importantly, she has a marriage contract with Zhu Xun.

"I know." Zhao Zhiang nodded, "Don't worry about this matter, I know it well."

The queen knew that Zhao Zhiang never liked her meddling in the affairs of state affairs, so she stopped talking about it.

"Let Zhongjun investigate Su Shiyuan's affairs, how did the investigation go?" Zhao Zhiang refused to see Wu Zhongjun since he learned that Su Ji was not dead.

The queen's face darkened, and she forced herself to reply: "I haven't checked it out yet, I'm afraid I have to wait."

"Hmph." Zhao Zhiang glanced at the queen, and said: "I established a ruling court as grandson, you are still not satisfied, and now you are still protecting the loyal emperor in front of me. From this point of view, all benefits belong to your Wu family .”

The queen looked at him incredulously, "My lord, my concubine doesn't understand what you mean. All the benefits belong to the Wu family. Whatever benefits we get, it's all for you and for the Zhao family."

"The story is still the same. No one knows when Su Shiyuan escaped." The queen said, got up with a flick of her sleeves, and said: "In front of Zhongjun, the clan's mansion is in charge of the fifth child."

Saying that, he left.

Zhao Zhiang was very angry and didn't have the mood to eat, so he went to the study with the help of Eunuch Du, and said as he walked, "Zhou Chao has a letter."

"Come here yesterday." Eunuch Du glanced at Zhao Zhi'ang, and replied cautiously: "Said he was confronting Zhennanhou in Nanyang, Shen Zhan now has [-] soldiers, [-] more than the men in his hands."

Of the [-], [-] belong to them.

"Fifty thousand is enough." Zhao Zhiang said, "I remember that the guards in Henan are all under control, right?"

With the experience of Jiangxi and Fujian, Zhao Zhiang ordered that all guards be revoked and many people were killed.

"Yes." Du Gonggong said: "Marquis Deqing is still in Shen Zhan's hands... I am afraid that Shen Zhan will make some demands."

Zhao Zhiang frowned, thought for a while, and said: "Then wait for him to make a request, no matter what, Marquis Deqing must be kept!" Keeping Marquis Deqing is the morale of the army.

Mr. Du should be.

At this moment, Mrs. Li, Marquis of Deqing, just left the palace. The Empress Dowager invited her into the palace to chat and appease her. Now she went out and brought a whole load of things. She had everything, but Mrs. Li was not interested at all, and she didn't even want to enter the palace. It was about to collapse, thinking about Marquis Deqing day and night, worrying about his safety.

But it was rumored in the palace that she had to wash her face and put on her face to accompany the smiling face in the palace, pretending to be grateful and in a good mood.

God knows how angry and hated she is, she can't wait to go to Henan to find Shen Zhan in person.

When the car entered the yard, Li Jun greeted her, supported her mother and said in a low voice, "Are you tired, I'll help you to rest for a while."

"It's really tiring." Mrs. Li rubbed her forehead, seeing that her daughter was already eighteen, but the marriage had not yet been decided, and her heart was burning like a fire, "Junjun, mother wants to go there in person, I will give the town Nanhou knelt down, kowtowed to him, kowtowed to Su Shi, and begged them to let your father go."

"If you want to go, I will go." Li Jun said: "You go, let dad lose face." Husband and wife are like one person, her mother kneeling is not the same as Deqing Hou kneeling.

Mrs. Li is not willing to let her daughter go, and when she was about to speak, Li Jun said helplessly: "Mother, I don't know if you and I can leave the capital, or see Shen Zhan, it's too early to say these things."

"What can we do?" Mrs. Li thought of Ying Jin, "I heard that the aunt in Ying Jing is very respected by the Su family, do you think..." and took her hostage.

Li Jun held Mrs. Li's hand and said in a low voice: "Mother, the Holy Majesty can also think of what you can think of... The reason why he still keeps it must have other plans." Then he said: "Let's not do it first In addition, the Holy Majesty should have arrangements."

"That's right." Mrs. Li nodded, "Your father is not here, we must be more cautious and not cause him any more trouble."

I heard that the Su family kills people without blinking an eye, and is very cruel. If she offends her, kill Deqinghou...

"I'll go to Henan secretly." Li Jun whispered, "If I can't think of a way, I'll come back secretly."

Mrs. Li thought for a while, and knew in her heart that it was better for Li Jun to go than by herself, "Let your uncle and your cousin accompany you, I don't worry about you alone."

"Okay." Li Jun nodded and said, "I'm going to pack up and get ready."

The mother and daughter entered the inner courtyard, and the mother who was close to her came to wait on her, and said in a low voice: "Ma'am, today the government office received a pleading paper, which is very interesting."

"What?" Mrs. Li took off the hairpin, Li Jun raised her brows and said, "What is it?"

The mother-in-law replied in a low voice: "There is a woman who sued Concubine Hu, saying that she was pretending to be Xiao Shan's daughter, and asked the grandson and the holy majesty to decide."

"Is there such a thing?" Mrs. Li was startled, "Why is Mrs. so courageous to sue the side concubine now?"

Everyone knows that no matter what Hu Qiongyue says, Zhao Zhiting will obey.

"Mother." Li Jun knew it as soon as she thought about it, "I'm afraid that some people did it by themselves, so think about it carefully."

Mrs. Li was stunned for a moment, and suddenly understood, "It makes sense." She said again: "This Concubine Hu is a smart person. At this time, someone will sue her. No matter whether she is or not, she can take this opportunity to come Get rid of the title of Xiaoshan's first daughter."

"She was afraid that the Holy One would take her as a hostage." Li Jun smiled and said, "The method is a good one, but she also thinks that the Holy One is too easy to bully."

Mrs. Li nodded, even if she was fake, Zhao Zhiang wanted to take her seriously now.

Sure enough, in the afternoon, I got the news that the woman who complained was hit and killed by a crazy horse on the street.

Everyone in the city thought that Hu Qiongyue did it, and Hu Qiongyue had already fallen ill in bed from anger.

Yanjing is at the foot of the emperor, and the people have always been at ease, but there is no such singing and dancing in other places.When Shen Zhan came to Henan, the next one would go to Shanxi or Shandong. The people in the two places were in a state of anxiety. Some packed up their clothes and went to Yanjing, while others did the opposite and went to Xuzhou and Luzhou to wait for several years. place.

"Haven't you heard that people in the Later Song Dynasty set up a school in Xuzhou, and the children of the common people could read and write when they went in, and Shuxiu was under the supervision of the yamen." He added: "It is the safest time to go to Xuzhou .”

"This is the ecstasy soup of the Later Song Dynasty. You haven't seen how many people were killed in Fengyang, and the people in the whole city were imprisoned. They are only allowed to enter but not to exit!"

"If you go to Xuzhou, it's like a sheep entering a tiger's mouth."

"That's right, neither Shen Zhan nor the Su family are kind people. I heard that Su Shiyuan also killed many people in Fujian, and even a town was slaughtered."

"It's not safe to go to Yanjing. With their speed, they will be able to reach Yanjing in a year or two at the latest. By then, the people of Yanjing will suffer even more!"

Everyone was silent, not knowing where to go.

But one thing is very clear, everyone has re-adapted to the sudden rise of the Later Song Dynasty, and even forgot what everyone said about Shen Zhan plotting chaos.

Everyone is their master, and no one is planning to cause chaos.

At the end of the first lunar month, the weather was still very cold, but the weather in Guangdong had already picked up. Su Ji won Shaozhou, and after entering the city, he ordered local food in a restaurant. Duan Zhen frowned after eating a few mouthfuls, "Also It's too bland."

"It's okay for me to eat." Su Ji said with a smile: "The dishes in Pingjiang Mansion are all light and sweet. There is no sweetness here, but the lightness is almost the same."

Duan Zhen couldn't help laughing, he is from Xuzhou, he has a strong taste, he would not be able to eat even ten mouthfuls of these bland dishes.

"The shopkeeper." Duan Zhen couldn't take it anymore, "Do you have any chili peppers? How many?"

The shopkeeper knew who was sitting in the lobby, and had been waiting in front of the counter for a long time. Hearing Duan Zhen's words, he immediately greeted: "Here we come!" It was tasteless.

"Your Highness." Duan Zhen said: "Just because of this stutter, we have to go to Guangxi as soon as possible."

Su Ji laughed, and said: "Okay, then hurry up and go over there to find spicy food for you."

The two of them went to the yamen after dinner. There was a big embroidery workshop along the street, and it said, "Splendid embroidery workshop."

"Huh." Duan Zhen snorted, because of Su Wanru's relationship, he was also particularly sensitive to these embroidery, "I never heard that there is a Jinxiu Workshop here."

Su Ji's eyes moved, pointed inside, and said: "Then go in and have a look. Maybe some embroiderer from Yanjing came here to open it." As they spoke, the two entered the embroidery workshop, and once they entered, there were The mother-in-law greeted her, and seeing Su Ji's frightened expression changed, she knelt down and said, "The woman kowtowed to Second Master Su."

Su Ji calls himself the second master to the outside world.

"Get up." Su Ji looked around. There was a shop outside and an embroidery workshop behind. It was quite big. The embroidery method was a little different from the ones he had seen Su Wanru embroider before, "Where's your boss?"

The mother-in-law got up tremblingly, and said: "The boss is behind, the lady-in-waiting will invite you now." She said and ran to the backyard.

After a while, Su Ji saw a young girl about seventeen or eighteen years old dressed as her boss came out. She was wearing a peach-pink beige and a weeping willow bun. Somewhat out of place.

After she came out, she kept staring at Su Ji, and saluted perfunctorily, but she didn't kowtow like the woman just now, and she didn't panic.

"You see our second master, why don't you kowtow to pay your respects." Duan Zhen said angrily.

The owner on the opposite side replied: "I only kowtow if I have a request. I don't have any request, so naturally I won't kowtow."

"It seems a little familiar." Su Ji raised his eyebrows and looked at him, "From Yanjing?"

The owner on the opposite side replied: "No, I was born and raised here, and I have never been to the capital." Then said: "If you think the sign on the door, I can only tell you that it is just a coincidence."

Su Ji nodded slightly, and said: "It turned out to be a coincidence, so I'm sorry to bother you." Then, he took a deep look at the other party, turned and walked out the door.

As soon as Su Ji left, Zhao Yiyu went back to the room and quickly called the servant over, and said in a low voice, "Where is the person I asked you to find?"

"Come tonight, they ask the boss who you want them to kill." The boy asked.

Zhao Yiyu sneered, and said, "Kill that person who doesn't know the heights of heaven and earth."

At night, a granary caught fire outside the city. Su Ji took people to put out the fire in person. As soon as he left the city, he was surrounded by a few vagrants...

Zhao Yiyu waited at home for a long time, and finally heard someone knock on the door in the middle of the night, and the servant ran in panting, only yelled, "Master..." and fell into a pool of blood.

"Ah!" Zhao Yiyu backed away in fright, and sat down on the ground. In the shadows, she saw Su Ji coming in from the door, leaning on the door frame and looking at her with folded arms, and said, "Princess Zhilan, it's a pleasure to meet you!"

"You know me?" Zhao Yiyu's face turned pale, Su Ji replied: "Everyone in the world knows that the princess disappeared on the way to get married."

Zhao Yiyu stood up suddenly, and said angrily: "I'm missing?! It's not that bitch Su Jin who disappeared, no... her name isn't Su Jin, and she doesn't even dare to use her real name. She's just a bitch, a coward. .”

Su Ji raised his eyebrows and looked up at the embroidery workshop, "Aren't you imitating my family's Wanwan?" He also opened the embroidery workshop.

"A joke, I did it for revenge." Zhao Yiyu said: "You are a defeated army, slaves of a subjugated country, and the laughing stock of the world. Even if you win a few battles and capture a few cities, so what, you will still lose to me in the end. Royal father."

"It's far worse than my family's Wanwan, no wonder you didn't know you were sold by her." Su Ji waved his hand, turned and went out, and said to Duan Zhen, "Tie!"

Su Wanru is standing in the village outside Anyang City. This is the Central Plains, and the rice yield per mu is the highest. But when I leave the city, I can see the farmland planted with castor, the hills planted with fruits and vegetables, and the ponds with fish and shrimp. Even the vegetable gardens that grow vegetables are not owned by the common people.

She was surprised, and asked with Uncle Liu, a farmer from Changliu Village who accompanied her, "Not one mu of all the fields around Nanyang belongs to the common people?"

"Yes!" Uncle Liu replied, "At first we still had some. Later, when the Great Zhou Dynasty opened, several honorable households came here, and the fields and mu were taken away by them and the government without knowing it. We will be tenants all year round..." Liu Bo said, wiping his tears, "They don't have to pay taxes, but we have to pay. The taxes that should have been allocated to the fields all fall on our tenants."

"We get a little bit of food from our master all year round, but we were taken away by the government before we ate it." Uncle Liu knelt down in front of Su Wanru and said, "Princess, we all surrender, we don't resist, I just beg you Help us, we... we people can't survive anymore."

To farm for others, you have to pay taxes for others, but you have to hand over ninety catties for one stone of grain a year.

"It's really enough for the people." Su Wanru laughed, and helped Uncle Liu up, "Uncle Liu, is this only in Nanyang, or is it like this in the whole of Henan?"

Uncle Liu replied: "This is the case in the whole of Henan. There used to be more than 500 households in our village, but now there are only less than [-] households left. Those who are capable have gone out. If you don't go out, you will have no way to live."

It's actually not easy to go out, you can only work for others, and it's even more impossible to farm.

"I can't answer you right now." Su Wanru and Liu Bo said, "I'll talk to you about it after I go back and find out."

Uncle Liu's eyes darkened, he nodded, and said, "Thank you, princess, thank you, princess." Some officials have made such promises after taking office before.

But in fact, the nobles here are deeply intertwined, even Su Wanru may not be able to shake them and change the current situation.

Su Wanru didn't say any more, and brought Lu Cheng back to the city, Lu Cheng said: "My lord has already arrived in Yuhang, ask me if you want him to turn around and block Zhou Chao from behind."

Zhou Chao is very smart, and he has always been appreciated by Shen Zhan before, but he did not expect to match up now.

But the good thing is that all of them are familiar with him.

"I don't know either, what did your master say?" Su Wanru said.

Lu Cheng replied: "My lord said, first round up the Nan bread, don't worry here, we are stuck in the throat, close the door and beat the dog, Zhou Chao will die sooner or later."

It is true that they came directly from Xuzhou to Kaifeng, and their throat was stuck, but Zhou Chao fell downstream.

"Oh, then each fights their own." Su Wanru smiled, walking all the way from the main street, and found that the gap between the rich and the poor in Nanyang can be seen in these buildings. It was like entering heaven all of a sudden.

The spacious tavern, the vermilion lacquered gate, the luxurious carriage, and even the maid who followed the young lady were all dressed in gold and silver.

And near the city gate, it looks like a slum. The low houses are built like shacks. It is still very cold at the end of the first month, but those children are still wearing cloth shoes with leaking toes, and they are walking on the road. side, wiping the snot running down his mouth.

Compared with the glamor just now, it makes people feel even more sad.

This kind of rich and poor, of course, can be found in every place, but if there are no good people in the whole city, except for the rich and the poor, then there must be something wrong with this place.

"Lu Cheng." Su Wanru said helplessly, "We may have encountered unprecedented trouble."

Class struggle has always had to hurt muscles and bones, and it can't be solved overnight.

It's not like killing a few people in Fengyang, and it's not like winning people's hearts in Xuzhou. If you want these nobles to spit out their own things, it's almost as difficult as conquering the world.

"Madam, it's better to arrest and kill all these nobles." Lu Cheng said.

Su Wanru shook her head, "You think the world belongs to the poor and the poor, but it's not. You can't stand on the people alone... In the end, you can rely on these people. They are the mainstay." She paused, and said, "Even if Killing is definitely not about killing and robbing, otherwise, it will be even more difficult for us to go to Shandong."

The wealthy people in the world united to resist, they really might not be able to afford this fist.

"We have to think of a good way." Su Wanru said in a low voice, "Let's use this as an experiment, and we will encounter such problems in the future."

Lu Cheng didn't understand, so he just nodded.

"Mother." August stood at the door of the house and waved to her. They rented a house here, 20 taels of silver a month. Ask them for 20 taels.

Just as they were not soldiers of the Later Song Dynasty, and there were no 8 people outside the city.

How awesome.

"Son." Su Wanru hugged August with open arms, and said with a smile, "What are you looking for, is there no one to play with you?"

August nodded and said, "Ergouzi, here we come."

"Huh?" Su Wanru was thrown down by Er Gouzi as soon as she turned her head. She laughed loudly, stroked the dog's head and said, "August will not be boring now."

(End of this chapter)